Just read a great article from Grantland. The article discusses the strength of the Western Conference and how imbalanced the NBA is currently. Last year in the Western Conference the Phoenix Suns missed the playoffs with 48 wins, while the Toronto Raptors were the 3rd seed in the East with the same win total. There is some discussions around NBA circles that this is a problem to be fixed, but Grantland disagrees here making the point that this is great for the league and the fans.
The conference imbalance inadvertently fixes the main criticisms of the NBA regular season. 1.) The season is too long. 2.) The games are meaningless in November and December. 3.) The champion is usually pretty predictable based on seeding. However, with the current strength of the Western Conference the contenders are slugging it out on a nightly basis. We’re already getting great games in the early season like the two triple overtime thrillers San Antonio played against Memphis and Portland.
My favorite line:
The western half the NBA is the ideal league we have always wanted. To paraphrase St. Augustine: “Lord, make the NBA more fair. But not yet.”
Update:
Leave a Reply